The AAC Legislative Package Association offers overview of the issues it plans to present to state legislature.
session begins in January 2017, and bills are already being pre- filed. Our legislative package of bills has proceeded through two committees of your peers — both the AAC legislative commit- tee and the AAC board of directors under the skilled hand and experienced leadership of AAC Legislative Chair Debbie Wise. Both committees have approved the following bills for inclusion in our legislative package, and we are ready to transition from the work of assimilating bills to the efforts of pursuing passage by the legislature and ultimately signature from the governor. Te county legislative package has historically been approved almost in full without many questions. Tis is because all of you have had a voice in what issues concern your respective offices and because counties generally look for pragmatic solutions that make sense. Countless hours and days have gone into turning conceptual ideas into actual legislative drafts, and this past year has been an in- credible exercise for your respected association leadership. I want to thank you for all the hard work you’ve put into improving county government. We encourage you to be a part of the process as we work with the 91st General Assembly to educate the legislature on our ideas to make our level of government even more effective. Our legislative bills are summarized as follows::
O Continuing education boards General
(Amendments of ACA § 14-15-811 and § 14-15-1001) Te treasurers and county collectors will pursue a change to their
respective continuing education board membership as they propose going from the current six members to a board of 10 members.
Record retention (Amendments to various code sections proposed by multiple member associations)
Several member associations submitted drafts concerning re-
cord-retention modernization and clarifications and these legis- lative changes have been included in one record-retention bill. Tis cumulative proposal further defines electronic and/or pho- tographic versions of records and established in code the custo- dian’s ability to reproduce a durable medium for the original. It also describes a retention conversion-and-review schedule to be performed at least one time every four years to prevent the physi- cal loss of data. Te record retention bill also addresses juvenile records, dispatch reports and unused ballots. Tis piece of legisla- tion also sets a default record retention schedule of three years af- ter an audit by the Arkansas Legislative Audit or a private auditor for documents not explicitly stated in the statute.
County Judges
Te County Judges Association of Arkansas (CJAA) voted to continue to pursue, support and educate the general assem-
COUNTY LINES, FALL 2016
ur member associations and your liaisons at the Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC) have been hard at work crafting proposed legislation for the 91st General Assembly. As you are aware, the
bly, governor and citizens on the dire need in Arkansas for four major complex and challenging areas of emphasis: behavioral health and crisis intervention diversion; prison and jail over- crowding; road and bridge funding; and 911 funding and effi- ciencies. Not all of the actual legislative drafting efforts in these areas are yet defined.
Behavioral health and crisis intervention diversion
• Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) in Arkansas; • Crisis Services in Arkansas; • Diversion of the mentally ill to treatment and away from being warehoused in county jails as default men- tal health facilities;
• Appropriate level of in-jail services and telemedicine for be- havioral health treatment of detainees in our jails in Arkansas;
• Te state and DHS to make necessary policy and budget- ary changes to assure these vital services;
• Local communities, local governments and stakeholders to combine resources and investments to support these vital resources; and
• State and local funding, revenues and court costs or fees to support diversion of the mentally ill.
Te Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association, CJAA and the Arkansas As- sociation of Quorum Courts all have adopted resolutions sup- porting funding for crisis intervention training and regional crisis stabilization units.
Prison/jail overcrowding
Te CJAA voted to engage and partner with state leadership and the governor to address a growing prison population that generally overflows into county jails hindering local law enforce- ment’s ability to utilize the jail as it was intended. Te CJAA will further detail its recommendations and garner support for mea- sures where deemed appropriate and warranted.
Road and bridge funding
Te CJAA general membership also identified the following points concerning road and bridge funding that may warrant legislation:
• Te need for new/additional revenues for state and local bridges (new revenue, taxes or user fees; motor fuels taxes; or responsible general revenue transfers, etc.);
• Te annual county bridge and maintenance needs state- wide in excess of $750 million;
• Te need to maintain the traditional revenue sharing under the 70-15-15 split (which has been supported by law since 1965 and recently in 2012 by the people under Amendment 91 of the Arkansas Constitution);
• Te need to maintain local control (which has been sup- ported by the people under the Arkansas Constitution since 1874, Article 7, § 28; Amendment 55-County Gov- ernment; Amendment 61-County Road Tax); and
• Te CJAA voted to reiterate their support for the interim 37
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